Here's the The Lowdownfrom DN Journal,
updated dailyto
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.

The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.

End
of September Newsmakers: .Biz, Sedo and ICANN (Who
Reaches a New Understanding With the U.S. Government)

Here
we are on the last day of September and
the final day of another business quarter, 3Q-2009.
This month is ending with a bang with big news on
several fronts. For starters, Sedo's

exclusive
auction of 1-character .biz domains ended today
with 31 names selling for more than $360,000. The
headliner was e.biz, a domain that went for a
stunning $66,001, setting a new high water mark for
the extension.

Others
breaking the five-figure mark were 1.biz ($32,003),
D.biz ($26,110), M.biz ($15,611), W.biz
($13,500), A.biz ($10,099), U.biz ($10,099),
X.biz ($10,099) and B.biz ($10,005). The
remaining names closed in a range from $5,801 to $9,400.
I think those are impressive results for an extension that
has had very few high dollar sales in the past.

Over
the past couple of years I've been seeing

more
.biz domains being used by small businesses in our area.
While the auction sales are a great attention getter,
continued adoption and development among end users is the real
key to establishing .biz (or any other extension for
that matter) in the public consiousness. Right now, the
extension's future looks better to me than it has at any
time since it was introduced in 2001.

In addition to
running the .biz special auction, Sedo made news
on another front today. Sedo's parent company, the
Adlink Groupannounced
it has purchased the remaining 24.06% of
stock still held by Sedo's original founders for 4.25
million newly issued shares and €5.5
million in cash. In addition, Sedo's Managing
Director (and one of the company founders) Tim
Schumacher was appointed CEO of the Adlink
Group.

In
another major development today, the U.S.
government loosened its grip on ICANN when
a Joint Project Agreement (JPA)
between the two bodies expired and was
replaced by a new

Affirmation
of Commitments(AOC) agreement.
According to the Wall
Street Journal the new
pact puts the U.S. government's stamp of
approval on a private-sector model for
directing the Internet, even though the
government stopped short of cutting its
ties with the organization. The U.S.
Commerce Department will still play an
active role in ICANN as a member of the organization's
Governmental Advisory Committee,
however other governments around the world
will have more influence now.

Just
how much the landscape will change under
the AOC as opposed to the previous JPA
remains to be seen. Internet
Commerce Association Legal
Counsel Phil Corwin is currently
looking over the new agreement and he is
expected to comment on the possible
ramifications for domain investors
soon.

Despite
the new agreement, the U.S. still has
ultimate control over the domain name
systemthrough its power to award
an Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA)
contract. It is this completely
separate contract with the U.S. that
gives ICANN authority over domain names
until the IANA contract expires in September
2011.

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